


Wake Up Call

by kuwdora



Category: Gargoyles (TV)
Genre: M/M, No Porn, Porn Battle, adorableness, show of my youth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-07-01
Updated: 2009-07-01
Packaged: 2018-01-27 21:59:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1723910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kuwdora/pseuds/kuwdora
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“D’you got anything to eat?” Lex asked hopefully. “Could make you a ‘sorry for waking you’ breakfast. I’m a master of omelets, just ask Hudson and Elisa.</p><p>“Lexington,” Owen said once more, patience wearing thin. Lex sighed.<br/></p>
            </blockquote>





	Wake Up Call

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Porn Battle prompt of demure. Has no porn, but oh, god the adorableness of Lex. Oh, show of my youth. <3

Lex sat in the open doorway, peering at Owen was on his side, eyes closed, chest slowly rising and falling. Lex blinked, his sight perfect in the pitch black, and thinking it was strange that Owen had such a large bed to begin with when he was sure that he had never had time to even spend six hours there sleeping, let alone share it with anyone. As far as he knew, Owen had no life outside Xanatos, Fox and taking care little awesome Alex or running down errands and sticking it to his clan whenever Xanatos cried jump.

He scratched his head and reached for the door handle, ready to creep back to the watchtower when Owen’s eyes snapped open, staring—no, _squinting_ —at him in the darkness. Lex gulped and froze as if dawn were striking his form and didn’t dare to breathe for fear of giving himself away.

“Lexington,” Owen said, his name sounding eerily like a reprimand Goliath and Hudson gave him.

“H-hi,” Lex said.

“What are you doing here?” he asked and reached for the lamp on the nightstand. With a click the light flooded the room, illuminating Lex’s bashful form hunkered near the door.

“Er..”

Lex scratched his chin and rubbed the point of his ear to stall for time, silently watching Owen unfurl the legs of his glasses and put them on with meticulous attention that humans shouldn’t have at this hour. He carefully pushed the covers down and swung his legs over the side of the bed, his pajamas remarkably white and cotton-pressed with thin blue horizontal lines running up and down his body. As a nocturnal creature, Lex had seen enough people in various states of undress, but he’d never seen sleep wear so wrinkle free and pristine after actual sleeping took place.

“Lexington,” Owen said again, though the accusatory tone seemed to have faded when Lex stared at the ground, nervously throwing a glance over at his shoulder, wondering how quick of an exit he could make.

“No reason,” Lex said with a hapless shrug.

Owen cleared his throat and Lex shrugged again.

“I don’t know alright? Things haven’t been good back home and Elisa isn’t talking to us right now. I don’t know. I don’t have anywhere else to go,” he said finally.

“Surely you have your sanctuaries,” Owen said, voice tight and controlled but Lex began to feel a little guilty because of the weariness that tugged at the words.

“Yeah, I guess… there’s always that arcade on 42nd with the really bad security alarm. S’pose I could go play some skee-ball and Tekken for awhile,” Lex said. He reached for the door handle and backed up a few steps, closing it behind him.

“Sorry. Good night,” he said.

“Wait a minute. You don’t expect to have woken me at—” Owen paused to look at the alarm clock next to the bed. “4:42 in the morning and leave scott free, do you?”

Lex tilted his head. “Excuse me?”

“I think you owe me a real explanation for disturbing me tonight,” he said.

Lex hesitated and shuffled back into Owen’s bedroom and glanced around the room, attempting to find some kind of detail to latch on to rather than the awkwardness of wanting to focus on Owen’s naked ankles and wonder if he had any chest hair beneath the perfectly pressed shirt. But Owen’s bedroom was as sparse and minimal as the rest of his apartment. White walls, few furnishings. No items at all and even if there were, none of them would be out place.

Lex half expected Owen to have some kind of trinkets or ancient artifacts, knowing what kind of antiquarian the man was when Owen could easily identify and recite encyclopedic knowledge of most the items in the castle. But there was a small framed picture hanging lonely on the wall beside Owen’s bed. He let his curiosity get the better of him and scampered towards the wall, peering upward and sat on his haunches, staring at the detail of the water droplets in the woman’s hair until Owen cleared his throat. Lex’s shoulders drooped and he curled his tail around his body.

“The Lady in the Lake. It’s nice,” Lex said without looking at Owen, idly thinking of the whimsical and dangerous stories Goliath brought back about Avalon and the fay.

“Yes, she is,” Owen said.

“Pretty,” Lex murmured.

“A gatekeeper to Avalon,” Owen said and Lex could hear him stand and fall into parade rest, hands clasped behind his back.

“A secret keeper,” said Lex before he rose to his hands and feet and clambered behind Owen to perch himself on the edge of the bed, striking a sitting pose not unlike his day form.

“Indeed,” Owen said. He paused. “You didn’t come here to talk about art,” Owen said.

“D’you got anything to eat?” Lex asked hopefully. “Could make you a ‘sorry for waking you’ breakfast. I’m a master of omelets, just ask Hudson and Elisa.”

“Lexington,” Owen said once more, patience wearing thin. Lex sighed.

“I don’t know,” he said again. “I’m so tired of… everything, you know? Thailog and Demona… me being stupid with The Quarrymen. Fox and Xanatos taking Alex so far away on _vacation_ … Things just suck. It’s like everything’s hitting me at once.”

Lex briefly glanced at Owen who tilted his head, his lips tightening in what Lex thought was annoyance.

“While I often provide my services as confidant and friend to Mr. Xanatos, I am not certain what you are looking for in a listener,” Owen said stiffly.

“What? I, uh. You mean I could talk… to you? Like… _talk_ ,” he said. “And not just talk about Alex like we usually do…?”

Owen adjusted the glasses on his face and sat down next to Lex and for a moment Lex was sure he saw a mischievous flicker in those eyes—Puck—lingering beneath Owen’s controlled demeanor.

“Yes. Though I’d prefer being given some notice so I could have coffee ready for such occasions,” he said wryly, the tone surprising Lex more than the actual words.

Lex laughed nervously. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Lex didn’t know what to say after that. He never really had anyone outside the clan and Elisa to talk to before and it’d so long since he’s felt so confused and lonely, so he didn’t know how to give voice to his feelings.

He stared at Owen for a moment and then began talking because talking would be better than staring because the staring led to Lex’s imagination running away from him again, wondering what being with a human was like. He’d ask Goliath if he didn’t think he’d have his wings ripped from his arms.

“I used to feel so alone. Sometimes I still do. I don’t have the luxury of traveling the world like Goliath and finding others like me,” Lex said and curled his olive tail around his form. Owen shifted slightly to get a better seat on the bed and Lex scratched his chin.

“I used to think you were crazy,” Lex said. He didn’t go on and Owen’s passive face broke into an ironic smile.

“Really,” he said.

“Because of what you do. What you did,” Lex said.

“What, specifically, are you referring to?”

Lex reached for Owen’s stone arm and held it up for him to see. “This,” he said, clawed fingers wrapping around the stone. It was cold, very cold, to the touch and reminded Lex of how cold he was during the day as a body of stone.

“Well,” Owen said, but Lex cut him off.

“Who shoves their hand into a Cauldron of Life for another person? Your arm is a block of stone, useless. How do you tie your shoes with one hand?” Lex asked, tapping the closed fist with his claw.

“Very carefully,” Owen replied and Lex laughed and Owen chuckled briefly which surprised Lex.

“You have such dedication and loyalty. For _Xanatos_.” Lex shook his head. “But after all these years now I see that he’s as much your family as Goliath and Brooklyn and everyone is mine. You just picked your family.”

“He picked me, actually,” Owen said and Lex grinned at him. “But semantics aside—”

“I think I get it now. Ever since Alex was born, I get how you can devote your whole life to someone,” Lex gestured at nothing in particular. “I mean, once upon a thousand years ago I thought I would eventually somehow, _someway_ , find some _one_ who could put up with me and ignore my annoying rookery brothers. Have eggs of my own, maybe.”

“I see,” Owen said slowly and Lex realized he was still holding onto Owen’s stone forearm. He let go and rubbed his own elbow to distract himself.

“But even back then I think I knew things were different,” Lex said and slid off the bed. He walked to the small window across the room and stared at the cityscape, red-orange and white lights littering Manhattan like gemstones the princess used to covet as a little girl. Lex sighed inwardly at the thought of the sun eventually be spilling over the horizon.

“What do you mean?” Owen asked.

Lex turned and shrugged.

“What does that mean?” Owen asked again and when he mimicked the gesture, Lex grinned, but it was a fleeting. He walked back and began admiring the maroon carpeting. “There was someone, but Goliath wouldn’t have approved. No one would have.”

“Why not?”

“It doesn’t matter now. It was a lifetime ago.”

“It seems to matter to you.”

“ _He’s_ long dead, so it doesn’t matter,” Lex said quickly, heart pounding. There—there was the small frown sliding onto Owen’s face as the words registered and Lex _knew_ he shouldn’t have come, shouldn’t have said anything.

“It’s going to be sunrise soon. I need to go,” Lex said and started for the door. His claws clinked against the wood and linoleum as he made his way through the hallway and kitchen. Owen paused near the apartment door, looking into the darkened living room that didn’t even have a TV.

“Lexington,” Owen said, turning the hallway light on.

“I’m sorry for bothering you. I’ll see you when Alex gets back,” Lex said.

“If you decide to return, let me know ahead of time so I can be awake when you get here,” Owen said.

Lex’s jaw tightened and he swallowed, heart thudding. “Do you really mean that?”

“Absolutely. You can’t keep everything pent up inside until it drives you yourself crazy,” Owen said with a small smile that made Lex’s stomach do a flip. “It wouldn’t do any good to have Uncle Lex upset. By now Alex would be able to know something was bothering you and he’d try to solve it himself… “ Owen cleared his throat. “And you know how erratic his powers are at his age. It can have… unfortunate consequences.” Owen stopped in front of Lex, towering above him and offered him a bland smile in an attempt at his humor that made Lex shake his head and grin.

“Thanks,” Lex said.

“You’re welcome.”

Lex opened the door and on second thought he turned around and launched himself into Owen’s arms, giving him a tight hug, arms wrapped around his neck. “ _Thank you_ ” he whispered, grateful but still fearful that he’d let his emotions get the better of him when Owen was so inviting.

Owen gently patted him on the back, fingers tracing the thin membrane of his wing before Lex gulped and unlatched himself from Owen’s embrace. He dropped to the floor with a soft thud and quickly scampered out the door, down the hallway and up the stairs to the roof of the apartment building, trying to ignore the thudding sound of his heart in his chest and ears.


End file.
